Intermittent Almanac 01.24

January 24, 2008

A bit of a gap there… but that’s what the whole “intermittent” thing is all about. And it leaves me something new for next year.

Today in History:

• 41 - Caligula is assasinated by his own Praetorian Guard, paving the way for the much less insane Claudius. The Secret Service might take note. The exact day is in dispute, but I’m taking a stand here.

• 1670 - William Congreve, playwright is born. I tried to read The Way of the World once, but never finished. However, almost everyone knows at least one of his phrases, at the end of this bit from The Mourning Bride:

Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn’d;
Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d.

• 1848 - Gold is discovered at Sutter’s Mill, starting the California Gold Rush… another in many waves of people Californians didn’t want and were never able to be rid of.

• 1862 - Edith Wharton, another author I should have read but haven’t is born. But I have seen three of the movies

• 1925 - Alfred Hitchcock releases his first complete film The Pleasure Garden, which is sadly unavailable from NetFlix.

• 1945 - Neil Diamond is born. Come on, you’ve gotta love America, Sweet Caroline, and the pre-UB40 Red, Red Wine…

• 1947 - Warren Zevon is born. Enjoy every sandwich.

• 1949 - John Belushi is born. While considering what could have been, appreciate what was.

• 1959 - Nastasja Kinski is born. I can confidently say that seeing her in Cat People– while in the throes of early adolescence– changed my life.

• 1972 - Shoichi Yokoi, the next to last Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II, finally lays down his weapons in Guam. Amazingly, that same year another Japanese soldier still in hiding dies in a gunfight in nearby jungles…

• 2003 - The Department of Homeland Security officially begins operations. See Year 41 above.

From Today’s Reading:

“Funeral March”

Make flutes of my long bones,
dice of my knuckles
and play against all odds

Drum bony finger solos on my skull
scrub out a rhythm on my washboard ribs
and play a dirge to dance to

in a major key

–Paul Sampson, from his book Dirge in a Resolutely Major Key

“The Mysterious Romance Box”

You are in the geology rooms
of the Museum of Natural History
with gems all around and the walls
velvet and blue. No, there are no bees in it.
It is an air conditioned place,
small enough to fit two rings.
One ring falls through the other
like a jazz song from seventh grade.

–Jessy Randall, from The Salt River Review

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